Photoshop - Third Self-taught tutorial

Sky Replacement:

My initial and main idea for the front of my DVD inlay involved the idea of using a basic image of the Eiffel tower, I aimed to add effects and layers to this to create an overall image including my four main actors. After careful consideration I felt that this was maybe too simple and not as creative as it could or should be. For this reason I began to look at ways to could adapt this. I then came across a tutorial which changed the sky in a photo. This would mean I could keep the main image which I loved and just change the background to create a different effect but most importantly show new skills which I would have otherwise left out.

What did I do?

In order to start off this process I needed to locate the two images I wanted to merge together. For this I used the Eiffel Tower image which I had been experimenting with for a while along with the original image I used when undertaking the gradient tutorial.

Sky Reference - http://all-free-download.com/free-photos/blue-sky-clouds-background.html - Accessed 20/02/2014.

 

Eiffel Tower Reference - http://www.anderson-tours.co.uk/top-10-things-to-do-in-paris/ - Accessed 06/02/2014.

The first step I needed to take was to bring both of these images together. To do this I first selected the Eiffel Tower image (Ctrl + A). I then moved to the Sky image and pasted my Eiffel Tower image on top (Ctrl + V). In the layers bar along the right hand side of the screen we should see a background layer and now layer one. This will appear as just the Eiffel Tower however the Sky image will be hidden behind this. The next simple step to take is to duplicate the layer (Layer 1). To do this I right clicked on layer 1 and then select duplicate layer or you can simply press Ctrl + J.

I didn’t need to use the copy of layer 1 to begin with so I simply used the eye button to hide this and then selected Layer 1. The next stage of this tutorial was to select the area of the image I wanted to leave alone. To do this I used the Polygonal Lasso Tool however any of the Lasso Tools would have worked in the same way. I then selected the area all around the Eiffel Tower and the bottom half of the picture. The sky was the only section not selected in this. With this selected I then created a layer mask. This is done by simply clicked on the icon along the bottom of the tool bar down the right hand side of the screen. This creates a simple black and white image in a separate thumbnail next to our original image in the layers panel. All of the image which is now white in this thumbnail is shown and all of the black area is now replaced with the Sky image.

The tutorial went on to explore different blending options further however I stopped here as I only wanted a basic of what I could achieve. To finish and improve this image I simply used the brush tool to bring in more of the image I wanted to keep using white.

The below image shows my end result:

 

My results and evaluation:

Overall I was shocked at how well this effect turned out. I was reluctant due to the fact that I thought it would be really obvious that the images were once separate however this turned out to be really untrue. You could barely tell the image was edited without any effects added so if I had of gone further with the tutorial I feel the end result would have been even better. This technique could be used in my second main design idea which will be shown in a later blog post. I feel this gives me more scope to try new tools and shows more of my ability than if I was to leave the Eiffel Tower image as it is. I feel that even if I don’t use this in my main front cover image I  could use this as part of the images I wish to use for the back cover as I feel it would be a shame to let this technique go unused.

The tutorial I used was taken from: http://www.photoshopessentials.com/photo-editing/replace-sky/ and was accessed on 19/02/2014.